Jeff Billimek’s Journal

In the Honolulu airport hotel, I woke up around 6:30am, so I got about 5 ½ hours of sleep. I was planning on catching the 10am Aloha Air flight to Kauai so I had some time to kill. I watched some TV. The only good thing I could find was CNBC. It was so bizarre to see them doing their ‘power lunch’ segment since it was only 6:30am, but on the east coast it was after noon.

Larry called me around 8am and told me that I should try to get on the earlier flight to Kauai that leaves at 9:30. I still had time so I caught the 8:30 shuttle to the airport and waited for my flight. On Tuesday in Atlanta I bought an “ID90″ pass for Aloha Airlines. An ID90 is a pass that you buy for travel on another airline at a 90% discount from their regular full fare price, but it is standby travel. I made it on that flight with no problem, as it was over half empty when we took off. Since it was now daylight, I could finally see Hawaii. Taking off, I was able to see the island really well out of the window. The beaches and clear blue waters certainly looked inviting and I couldn’t wait to get out into the water. I was surprised at how ‘far’ Kauai was from the main island.

After about 30 minutes, Larry and Amy arrived on their flight. We got the rental car and were off to get some lunch. We stopped in a little place that had fish tacos. We then headed to the rental house. The house was in a really nice area with other nice houses close to the beach. It is a large three-bedroom house with lots of windows. The living room has a great view of the ocean and there is a nice deck outside that you can feel the breeze and soak up the sun.

When we were settled in, we went to a beach to try out the water. We stopped in a couple of shops along the way where I rented some fins. At the beach we set out to go snorkeling. I used Amy’s old mask and snorkel. I had a problem with the mask leaking and it made the experience frustrating instead of enjoyable. What I could see was incredible though. There were so many fish underwater that could easily be seen because the water was so clear. The underwater formations were nice too because of the reef and occasional coral. After snorkeling around for a bit we got out and stayed in the sun for a while. By this time, it was getting late so we went back to the town area for dinner. We ate at this little place that used to be a schoolhouse. After dinner we wanted to see the sunset from a beach with a good view out to the west. Larry wanted to go out into the water, but I didn’t feel good about swimming so soon after eating - not because of cramps, but because it felt strange to get into the water when full. After a few minutes I joined him, and this area was nice because there were some underwater ‘valleys’ that you could follow. Also at this time, I had rented a new mask since the other one leaked so badly. The new mask was perfect and didn’t leak at all. The new snorkel was good to because it had a ‘flap’ on the top that better prevented water from getting in. I can’t stand it when water gets into the snorkel and I have to come up and spit the water out. I absolutely hate that.

I got out of the water before the sunset so that I could dry off and actually see the sun set beyond the horizon. I stood on some lava rocks (they were all smooth) and watched the sun ‘quickly’ dip behind the horizon. I wish I had brought my camera, but will bring it next time we go see the sun set.

After we got back to the house, I read more of my book and went to bed. There was no air conditioning so we had all of the windows open. At first it was warm enough to sleep with only a sheet, but later at night it got cold enough that I had to use the blanket.

The birds were really loud right before dawn. I think I heard hundreds of birds singing outside. Fortunately I was able to fall back to sleep again. Shortly after waking up, Larry and Amy said that we were going to go down to the Princeville Hotel beach for the day. Since we aren’t staying at the hotel, we are going to have to lie about what room we are in if we are asked. After getting to the hotel and valet parking, we got lost trying to find our way down to the beach. The hotel is laid out in a strange way. The lobby is floor 8, but the floors go from 1-4 and then after four, it jumps to 8-12. It’s really strange.

Once we got to the beach area we picked out three padded beach chairs on the sand and soaked up some sun. Shortly thereafter, Larry and I went down to the surf to go snorkeling. We had to go a little bit off to the left as the tide was out and all the other areas were shallow. We found our spot: A deeper ‘channel’ that ran out from the beach to the ocean with reef on both sides. We snorkeled out to right before where the waves were breaking. Along the way we saw the tail of an eel sticking out from underneath a rock. We also saw more of those long-thing fish that look like alligator gar. The look scary and if they were bigger, I would certainly be weary of them with their larger body and long mouth. Unlike gar though, I didn’t see a whole lot of sharp teeth, so that was good.

Larry wanted to go over to the ‘left’ and ‘right’ of where we were to say in front of the breaking waves. While swimming around those areas, we were out of that channel and floating right over the reef in some shallow areas. When the waves come and go the motion will either push you ‘up’ or ‘down’. When the waves were pushing me down, I felt like I was getting much too close to the reef and tried to avoid the shallow areas or to swim across them as quickly as possible. In some instances, I was using my hands to pull myself along. Larry noticed this and told me not to do it. I thought it was because he didn’t want me to disturb any of the coral, even though I was taking care not to touch any. He explained that there are a lot of sea urchins within the rocks, and if I touch any, I’ll likely get stung. I’m glad he told me that because after moving onward, I noticed sea urchins all over the place in the reef. Sea Urchins come in many different sizes. They are spiky black ‘balls’ that look very menacing.

After snorkeling for a while, Larry and I headed back to the beach. Shortly after getting back and drying off in the sun, it was 11am, and we decided to get some lunch. Behind the beach is the hotel pool and behind that is the bar with a restaurant to the right. We had lunch at the hotel restaurant. I had a tuna salad sandwich and a mai tai. It was nice having lunch outside near the beach. I paid for lunch this time too.

We went back to our beach chairs after lunch and a while after that, Larry wanted to go back into the water. I declined, so Amy went with him. By this point in the trip, I had some areas of sunburn on my body, so I reapplied sun block to help prevent any more. Amy came back first and then Larry came back a while later. He went out further and said he saw some sea turtles. We all laid out in the sun for an hour or two longer, but then some clouds came in and it looked as if they would be around for a while. So we decided to go back to the house.

I read more of my book (I’m close to half done now, so I need to slow down or else I won’t have anything to read on the plane back to Atlanta.) We decided to order pizza so Larry hunted for the phone number of a pizza place and found one. We decided to get two medium pizzas: One with double pepperoni, and the other with pepperoni and Canadian bacon. While on the phone placing the order, Larry got angry with the person because they wouldn’t put chicken on a pepperoni pizza. After that, Amy got upset with Larry because she was concerned that they would sabotage our food. Larry and Amy then got into an argument about the merits of getting angry with food people over the phone. Fortunately it ended and Larry and I picked up the pizza that turned out to be really good.

We finished in time to go see the sunset over the beach just down the road. I actually remembered to bring my camera this time, but just as the sun was going down the sun went behind some clouds. I still took some pictures but hope we get to see another sunset that I can get better pictures.

After the sunset we headed back and watched a 1964 documentary about surfers titled, “The Endless Summer”. When the movie was over I was very tired and went to bed.

I woke up around 7:30am and wrote in my journal. After that I had my breakfast, a protein-powder smoothie that contains milk, orange juice, a banana, designer protein, and frozen strawberries. It turns out that Larry got sick the night before. We suspected that it was food poisoning from his fish the previous night. He was throwing up everything he ate and felt weak. We hung around for a while - Amy was watching TV and doing laundry, Larry was resting, and I was reading my book. I’m reading that book much too fast. I don’t know what I’m going to do if I finish it before I complete this trip. I’m going to have a lot of time on my hands on my trip back, both in the plane and on the ground waiting for planes. I might have to buy some magazines from the bookstores in the Airports or re-read “Neuromancer”.

We decided to go get some breakfast and then come back to the house to drop Larry off while Amy and I go to the beach. We were going to get something from the Hanalei gourmet place in town, but it was closed for the day, so Amy and I had something from Bubba’s Burger. I had a chili-cheese dog and onion rings. Amy had a burger and Larry just had some ice tea.

We dropped Larry off and headed out towards Tunnels Beach. On the way there, it looked like it could be raining off in the distance. When we got there and walked down to the beach, it was sunny. The beach was very crowded; there were a lot of people on the beach, and even more in the water. As soon as I finished putting on sun block, it started to rain. It was such a strange feeling to be laying out in the rain while the sun was still bearing down full force. I didn’t mind the rain as much as it seemed like it would pass soon. Sure enough, the rain passed over after a couple of minutes. More dark clouds appeared behind us and the rain began again. This time, the sun was blocked out and it seemed like it was going to be raining for a while. Amy and I decided that we should head back.

On the way back we stopped to rent a movie, Mickey Blue Eyes. Once we got back, I checked flight info for getting back to Atlanta. From looking at Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, Thursday looked to be the best for flying back. I’ll check again Wednesday to get a final picture before making up my mind.

We watched the rest of The Endless Summer 2 and had dinner. Amy grilled some marinated chicken beasts but we also had salad, corn on the cob, and a baked potato. After dinner we watched Mickey Blue Eyes and headed off for bed.